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Home Front: Politix
55,000 dead or duplicate voters deleted from state database
2006-05-14
OLYMPIA — The Secretary of State's Office has deleted about 55,000 registrations from Washington's voter rolls after finding duplicate records and dead voters with the aid of a new statewide database. The database, put in place earlier this year, allowed the state to find 19,579 dead people still on the rolls and 35,445 duplicate voter records. "It's a critical piece to help regain the trust and confidence of the voters of the state of Washington," Secretary of State Sam Reed said Friday. "I think we are slowly but surely rebuilding trust in the system."

Voter confidence was shaken in 2004, when Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire narrowly beat Republican Dino Rossi after two recounts. The tumultuous election was replete with lost ballots, mismatched signatures, and dead people and convicted felons casting ballots. Rossi challenged the election in court and lost.

Several changes were made by the state Legislature to help keep the problems from happening again, including moving the primary back from the third Tuesday in September to the third Tuesday in August, starting in 2007. That move is expected to give election workers more time to get out absentee and overseas ballots to voters for the general election. The scrub of the state database found few cases of potential voter fraud. About 30 cases of possible double voting were forwarded to county officials for investigation, Reed said. The database was paid for with federal money as part of the national 2002 Help America Vote Act. It consolidates individual lists kept by the state's 39 counties into one database. The information can be cross-checked with records at the state Department of Licensing, the Department of Health, the Department of Corrections and the Social Security Administration.
Posted by:Fred

#13  Just dip the finger in the indelible ink like they do in all the countires we conquer. That will save on little "I voted" stickies, too.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2006-05-14 20:58  

#12  Simple- do an optical scan and a thumb or forefinger scan - normalize the data in such a way it accounts for minut chnges in fingerprint but between the 2 it satistically is a secure identification. Record the data in one database, record the voter registration number in another database. Record the cryptographic hash value of the VR info and put it as the index to the bio data, and the cryptographic hash of the bio data and put it as the index of the VR info.

Remember its a function of the one-way function called a hash that given the data you can regenerate the hash, but given the hash you cannot regenerate the data.

This means if they take a fingerprint and retinal scan, they can use it to verify the address you have given. Or give them the voter registration info, they can look up your fingerprint and retinal pattern and check them against what you give them now. Neither can be done without other. , but etiher can be used to retrieve the other for validation. And the combination of the two makes a completely unique (i.e. no dupe voter) entity.

Next, combine together the date, time location/precinct code and the 2 hashes above. Take the cryptographic hash of that - and the becomes the vote record number. This is evidence that the particular person identified by the bio and voter-reg data was at that precinct at that dat and time, and that they voted. Like above, given the data, you can regenerate the hash, but given the hash, you cannot regenerate the data.

Have the voting machine combine those values and the vote itself (the choices a B C D, etc - not the ballot info) - then cryptographically sign that. (All the "hashesh" are printed as barcodes, like the postal ones that are all dots and patterns not neccesarily bars - and the numbers themsleves are printed as well in hexadecimal).

There you have a ballot - all done by computer except for marking the ballot.

The voter gets a paper receipt with his vote choices, date time and location on one part in english and the barcode at the bottom, right then and there. And on the other part is his "Vote Number" (thats they crypto signature) which is just a barcode and a string of digits. Thats your voting recipt.

If he ever has any doubt he can request that they check the "Vote Number" - that it exists, and giving them the other data, they can even check that it wasnt tampered with, and that it was tallied.

Heck with the bar code he should be able to take the records to the courthouse, put them past a sumermarket scanner type thing, scan his eye and finger as identity, veryfiy his addres - and BOOP - up pops the choices he made as they awere tallied for the election.

Given that its a classic cryptographic "one way" function, hashes and normalized data are the way to go - it makes the system COMPLETELY open and transparent yet hides the individual choices from everyone except the individual and the vote tallying computer.
Posted by: Oldspook   2006-05-14 20:42  

#11  Heh heh, Mr. Kelly was alway sensitive to the special needs of the Brotherhood of the Layd Out & Stiff
Posted by: 6   2006-05-14 17:42  

#10  I'm for a opti-scan thumbprint on the voucher saying that you voted (not on who you voted for). It would make it easy to keep track and prosecute offenders. I know, I know. I'm dreaming.
Posted by: 2b   2006-05-14 17:27  

#9  "Would you then disenfranchise the noble dead?" (Congersman Frog in Pogo by Walt Kelly)
Posted by: James   2006-05-14 17:25  

#8  I'm for paper ballot, with the classical Iraqi ink fingerprint just for future verification purposes, recalling the Washington state judge's rationale for dismissing the challenge case. The only people who want the count done 'now' is MSM. The rest of us can just wait a week or so for the tallies.
Posted by: Elmemble Hupamp7763   2006-05-14 09:20  

#7  About 30 cases of possible double voting were forwarded to county officials for investigation, Reed said

According to SoundPolitics.com
where Stefan Sharkansky has been keeping the admin's toes close to the fire, he found what he thinks are 180 double voters in King County alone. He also points out that the fewer you investigate the fewer has to be reported to the press.

FYI - Next year King County will go all-mail-order. So votes will be counted in back-allys (possibly by teamster 'volunteers'.....)
Posted by: CrazyFool   2006-05-14 08:49  

#6  How about cross checking the names on the ballots found in a Seattle warehouse during the last election, with this list?
Posted by: ed   2006-05-14 08:12  

#5  In Washington state?
Posted by: lotp   2006-05-14 08:02  

#4  That's 55000 less democratic voters!

More likely it is 55000 less republican voters.
Posted by: 2b   2006-05-14 06:55  

#3  30 is all they are going to make examples of. The Dems will keep cheating as long as they can get away with it. It's SOP for them.
Posted by: SPoD   2006-05-14 03:48  

#2  That's 55000 less democratic voters! What were you thinking, man!?!?
Posted by: DarthVader   2006-05-14 03:37  

#1  Just 30 cases found? Out of 55,000 jacked up records there's just 30 that improperly voted?

For some reason I think that number is much higher.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats   2006-05-14 00:05  

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